Morning Coffee: Taurasi becomes first WNBA player to 10,000 points

Diana Taurasi has spent the past five years adding to her position as the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer.

Last night, she added another unprecedented milestone to her remarkable resume.

Taurasi became the first player in WNBA history to reach 10,000 points in her career.

She reached that milestone in style, registering her fourth career 40-point game and leading the Phoenix Mercury to a 91-71 win over the Atlanta Dream.

FanDuel gave us a chance to bet on how Taurasi would reach the 10,000-point milestone.

We locked in Taurasi to score her 10,000th point via a three-point shot as the heavy favourite in that market.

This is the Morning Coffee for Friday, Aug. 4, 2023.

Taurasi becomes first WNBA player to 10,000 points

Taurasi entered last night’s game needing 18 points to reach the 10,000-point milestone against the Dream.

Not only did Taurasi score the 18 points she needed to officially reach the 10K milestone.

The veteran star went on to score 42 points – the third most in her career and the most in a regulation game.

The 42-point performance included 32 points in the second half, which is the second most in any half in WNBA history.

Taurasi to score her 10,000th career point via a three-point shot was -105 at FanDuel.

 Taurasi to score 25+ points in the win was +182. Taurasi to score 30+ points in the win was +590.

At 41 years and 53 days old, Taurasi is easily the oldest player in WNBA history to record a 40-point game.

Taurasi also owns the WNBA record for the most 40-point games in league history with four.

England now the favourite to win Women’s World Cup

The United States entered the Women’s World Cup as the obvious favourite to win the tournament outright at FanDuel.

After barely getting through to the knockout stage, the United States is now the third choice to win it all at +470.

 Their showdown with Sweden in the Round of 16 will be one of the most highly anticipated matches of the tournament so far on Sunday.

Spain remains the second choice to win it all at +470.

England is now the favourite to win the Women’s World Cup at +250.

 In terms of the biggest riser among the top-10 pre-tournament choices, Japan went from +3400 to +850 and is now a top-five choice to win it all at FanDuel.

Colombia, which went from +19000 to +4400 to win the tournament, is the biggest riser among the teams that were outside of the top 10 choices to win it all at FanDuel pre-tournament.

As someone who bet on the Americans to reach the final at FanDuel, I’m holding out hope that their best is yet to come.

 Sunday’s showdown with Sweden should give us a good indication whether or not the U.S. has another level to showcase at this tournament.

A FanDuel Best Bet for Friday’s MLB slate

We cashed another FanDuel Best Bet on Thursday with the Texas Rangers run line against the Chicago White Sox.

It was a bit of a sweat as Texas fell behind 3-0 early, but the Rangers rallied for the 5-3 win as the FanDuel Best Bets in this column improved to 3-1 this week.

 That means we are guaranteed another week in the green with one more pick to go. I think we can another winner to the check list this morning.

The Toronto Blue Jays just dropped three of four games to the Baltimore Orioles at home.

They were the betting favourite to win all four games.

Toronto fell to 8-23 versus AL East opponents this season.

After dropping three of four to Baltimore, the Blue Jays travel for a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox this weekend.

In order to get back on track, they’ll turn to Alek Manoah tonight.

Manoah is 2-8 with a 5.87 ERA this season. 

While he’s been better since returning to the big club, he’s about to face an opponent that has won each of its past four at home and is desperate to get back in the win column after dropping four of its past five on the road.

The Red Sox are 7-0 against the Blue Jays this season.

Boston is just two games back of Toronto for the final wild-card spot entering this weekend series.

James Paxton is 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA at home this season.

 I don’t love the price, but I’m going to take the Red Sox to win at -168 as my FanDuel Best Bet for Friday’s MLB action.

Hopefully, Boston can take advantage at home and help us finish the week off with another FanDuel Best Bet winner.

Good luck to anyone who tails and have a great weekend!